HOWTO: Fluxbox inside GNOME (BETA)

[Brunellus]

Earlier, I asked whether it would be possible to run Fluxbox (http://www.fluxbox.org) as Gnome's default windowmanager instead of metacity.

I am pleased to report that this is possible. Consider this a draft howto, as I am busy trying to tweak things.

I am indebted to poofyhairguy's "enlightened gnome" howto, as well as Stormy Eyes' excellent advice on running Openbox within Gnome

STEP ONE: Installing Fluxbox

This is the easy part. Fluxbox is in universe; enable universe, fire up your terminal, and $ sudo apt-get install fluxbox that sucker.

You can restart the Xsession here, if you like. When GDM comes up, you'll see Fluxbox added to your "Sessions" menu.

However, I would NOT restart the Xsession at this point. Fire up your terminal and $ sudo /usr/share/xsessions/fluxbox.desktop

where you see exec=fluxbox replace that line with exec=startfluxbox

If you do this, Fluxbox will, on its first execution, generate a configuration file:

~/.fluxbox/startup

For a more complete discussion of what the startup file does in Fluxbox, please see This page in the Gentoo Wiki (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Fluxbox#Startup_Applications)

Log into fluxbox, and confirm that it does, indeed work. We are now ready for

STEP TWO: Cramming Fluxbox into Gnome

This next section is essentially ripped off of poofyhairguy's excellent, and recently slashdotted, Enlightened Gnome Howto.

First, execute the following in a regular terminal: $ sudo cp /usr/share/gnome/default.session ~/.gnome2/session

Then, edit that session file: sudo gedit ~/.gnome2/session

Find this line: 1,RestartCommand=gnome-wm --sm-client-id default1 and change it to this: 1,RestartCommand=gnome-wm --default-wm fluxbox --sm-client-id default1

Save the file, restart your Xsession (CTRL+ALT+BKSPACE), and log back into gnome.

This will take a while. You will see fluxbox first, then the gnome-panel, and finally the desktop will appear and draw over all the fluxbox desktop.

Fluxbox in Gnome: First impressions

Fluxbox is a very lightweight windowmanager. Not for nothing is it the wm of choice of DamnSmallLinux (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org) From what I can tell, it takes up VERY little RAM.

It also draws and redraws faster than metacity, at least on my equipment--AMD k7, 512 MB RAM, nvidia geforce 5200 128mb VRAM-- and much neater as well.

Here's a neat trick that Fluxbox does: open two windows. Now middle-click drag one onto another. The two windows are now docked together: clicking on the titlebar will switch between windows. In this way, you can tab through any number of windows. This is particularly nice if you run stuff from terminals--that way, you can have the app in one window, then click the window itself and get the debug output.

Things I've got to figure out:

The nautilus desktop draws over fluxbox. Thus, no flux taskbar and no slit (the flux name for the dock).

Also, I can't get flux's right-click menu. Middle-click works.

Comments are ALWAYS welcome. A huge shout and thanks to the whole Ubuntu community--y'all rock, hard.

And of course, a screenshot (http://static.flickr.com/27/41568346_aa996d0e15_o.png) of my desktop. The wm is fluxbox, and an assload of gdesklets running.

[UrbanSlayer]

After doing the E16 into Gnome, I think you can get the right click menus and get some of Flux back by going into the Configuration Editor and telling Nautilus to not draw the desktop. I forget exactly where it is, but that should do it.

[xequence]

It worked decently, just gnome and fluxbox conflict... Fluxbox brings along its bottom bar thingy...

Also, wikipedia says fluxbox isnt good in ubuntu because of some utf-8 encoding or something.

But, good trick to change WMs :)

[traherom]

Fire up your terminal and $ sudo /usr/share/xsessions/fluxbox.desktopShould be:
$ sudo gedit /usr/share/xsessions/fluxbox.desktop

:)

[Dethlin]

Thank you for this guide. I love this mix

One problem I seem to have is that Gnome takes about 2 mins to load up every time. Fluxbox starts straight away but the splash screen for gnome seems to stop at the Windows Manager stage for 2 mins then it loads up fine.

Anyone else have this problem?

thanks in advance :)

[pay]

Things I've got to figure out:

The nautilus desktop draws over fluxbox. Thus, no flux taskbar and no slit (the flux name for the dock).If you run nautilus from the terminal withnautilus --no-desktopit won't draw over fluxbox.

[tommytrying2linux]

I'm going to try this, will report any problems here.

[Twitch6000]

is there an updated version of this? i am trying to do this and the files mention are either not there or somewhere else.

[stanca]

Somehow I screwed my pseudo-transparency and especially menu alpha transparency in my fluxbox session.I installed xcompmgr too but I didn't know I have to disable the force pseudo-transparency first.So,despite the fact I removed completely xcompmgr and transset,the problem still persists.
I can't even disable the pseudo-transparency from configuration menu,it remained stuck with focused window alpha:255,unfocused window alpha:175,and menu alpha:255.
Do I have to reinstall the fluxbox wm again?
Edit:Solved in the end.Disabled pseudo-transparency from init file from ~/fluxbox/,reinstalled xcompmgr,restart,and now all is OK.Fluxbox in its maximum way:

[SiKing]

Hi.
Just found this great HOWTO. I am trying it on Ubuntu 8.04 (equivalent). Have a few questions if I may:


Everything seems to be running fine. Just as Brunellus mentioned: windows do appear to be drawing faster. How do I know if I really am running Flux? I tried 'ps -elf | grep flux' and got nothing.
The application tabbing, which is the primary reason why I wanted to do this, does not seem to be working. When I middle-click on a window, it gets sent to the background! I think this may be some sort of GNOME setting, however I have no idea where it is. Any help?

Thank You.

[tweaksource]

wikipedia says fluxbox isnt good in ubuntu because of some utf-8 encoding or something.




Wikipedia is not always correct.:)